Satellite based digital imaging devices generally utilize an array of sensors that operate in visible, near visible or other spectrum to capture the digital image information. The sensors may have spectral sensitivities that correspond roughly to various portions of a given spectrum. Data from space-based non-hyperspectral instruments are unable to resolve the vertical structure of the Earth's atmospheric moisture field due to their broad band radiance observations. In this regard, imager-based wind estimation products are limited to the vertical structure of cloud tops and upper tropospheric water vapor distributions present at the time of observation. As a result, these wind estimation products usually are limited to estimating three layers of the troposphere and are spatially discontinuous.
For example, wind field estimation using visible/infrared satellite imagers like Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system (GOES), Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are well documented. By way of example, the latest AVHRR satellite has six relatively broad channels including wavelengths (λ) in a first thermal band at 12 micrometers (μm), a second thermal band at 11 μm, a band centered at 3.5 μm, a band centered at 1.6 μm, a band in the near infrared centered at 0.9 μm, and a band in the red region centered at 0.6 μm. Thus, by their nature, these six channels are unable to resolve the vertical structure of the moisture field due to their broadband spectrum.
In light of the shortcomings of these and other techniques, the need has been felt for a technique to perform atmospheric wind field vertical profile estimation using spectral radiance of multiband imagery and temperature profiles.